New Caledonia (Kanaky) was populated by Melanesians (Kanaki)
2,000 years ago. The islands were named by Captain Cook in 1774, as the
tree-covered hills reminded him of the Scottish - Caledonian - landscape. In
1853, the main island was occupied by the French Navy which organized a local
guard to suppress frequent indigenous uprisings. Nickel and chrome mining
attracted thousands of French settlers. The colonizers pushed out the original
inhabitants, and traditional religions, crafts and social organizations were
obliterated, and many landless natives were confined to 'reservations', and the
system of terraced fields were trodden over by cattle. The last armed rebellion,
stifled in 1917, only accelerated European land appropriation.

After Algerian independence, in July 1962, colonization
increased with the arrival of pieds-noirs, the former French colonists in
Algeria. By 1946, New Caledonia had become a French Overseas Territory but the
resulting political autonomy did not favour the Kanaks, reduced to a minority
group in relation to the caldoches (descendants of Europeans who had
settled a century ago). Most of the Kanaks actively supported independence as
the bulk of them lived in poverty with high unemployment rates, and suffered
educational discrimination. By the 1970s, discontent with the economic situation
produced by colonial domination caused strikes, land invasions, experiments in
cooperative work, and a powerful campaign to restore traditional lands to the
local groups. These had been totally occupied by settlers and used mostly as
cattle pastures. The rescue of coutume (cultural traditions) and the Kanak
identity became a priority, and the proposed luxury tourist Club Mediterranee
camps were firmly rejected.

Kanak claims were supported by other independent
Melanesian countries (Fiji, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and above all
Vanuatu), and were put forward at the South Pacific Forum in August 1981. A
month later, pro-independence leader Pierre Dederco, a Catholic of European
origin, was murdered at his home by right-wing extremists, changing the malaise
to a full blown political crisis. Another strong reason why France was hesitant
to grant Kanaky independence is that it has the world's second largest nickel
deposits, and extensive reserves of other minerals including chrome, iron,
cobalt, manganese, and polymetallic nodules, discovered recently on the ocean
floor within territorial waters. Furthermore, the islands' strategic position is
of great military value. Its ports, facilities and bases house 6,000 troops and
a small war fleet (including a nuclear submarine), considered by the military
command as a 'vital point of support' for the French nuclear-testing site on
Mururoa atoll.

The election of President Mitterrand in 1981 rekindled
the hopes of the pro-independence parties. The French socialist leader was
supported by most Kanaks, who saw independence as a way to end the unfair income
distribution on the island. This stood at $7,000 per capita (the highest in the
Pacific except for Nauru) but the vast majority of the money was concentrated in
the hands of European - mostly French-business people, the metros, who
enjoyed incredible fiscal benefits, and the caldoches who monopolized the most
important official oppositions.

In July 1984, the French National Assembly passed
special bills concerning the colony's autonomy, though it rejected amendments
submitted by pro-independence parties, confirming Kanak fears that the socialist
government of France had no intention of granting independence. In November, the
main opposition force, the Socialist Kanak National Liberation Front (FLNKS)
called for a boycott of local Territorial Assembly electors, which were sure to
endorse the French government plan of postponing Kanak independence
indefinitely. In December 1986, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed
the right of the Kanak people to self-determination and independence, proposing
that the FLNKS be recognised as their legitimate representative.

One year later a referendum was held to determine
whether or not ties with France should be maintained. voting was open to all
residents of the island, even Europeans and immigrants who arrived as recently
as three years and, for this reason, the FLNKS boycotted the referendum.
According to the opposition and the Australian and New Zealand/Aotearoan
governments, the high abstention rate of around 41.5 per cent invalidated by
claim to legitimacy for continued colonial domination. When all attempts at
negotiation failed for the Kanaks, the French attacked the island of Ouvea,
killing 19 people, most of whom were apparently executed rather than killed in
combat. In June 1988, FJNKS leader, Jean-Marie Tjibaou, and Jacques Lafleur
(leader of the Caledonian Popular Assembly for the Republic and strongly opposed
to independence) signed Section 1 of the Matignon Accord, supported by the
French prime minister Michel Rocard, in Paris. From July that year direct
government over Kanaky was re-established from Paris. Section II of the Accord
stipulated the adoption of preparatory measures for voting on self-determination
in 1998 and the freezing of electoral roll, to prevent France increasing the
number of voters by sending new colonists.

The territory was divided into three regions, two with
a majority of Kanak voters. One of the aims of the division was to create a
Melanesian (Kanak) political and financial 'elite', taking over power from the
pro-independence groups in most of the territory. Other clauses of the agreement
planned greater financial support from Paris during the following ten years. In
a first referendum that same year, the agreements were ratified. In May 1989,
Tjibaou and another independence leader who supported the Maatignon agreements
were assassinated in Ouvea. In 1991, the trade balance was affected by the fall
in international prices for nickel caned fish. In the two provinces controlled
by the pro-independence parties, a new generation of lead4ers appeared, but the
situation worsened for most of the Melanesian population. The imbalance of
income became pronounced amongst the Kanaks and greater access to material goods
distanced many Melanesians from their community structures and traditions.

In the caldoche areas, mainly covering the capital
Noumea, social inequalities also increased, partly due to the arrival of
Melanesian farmers who built shanty towns on the outskirts of the city, but also
due to the impoverishment of some caldoches. In a context of increasing social
tension, disturbances like those in March 1992 became more common. The political
repercussions of these new social contradictions were reflected in the 1995
provincial elections. The Palika, one of the FLNKS groups, registered
separately, criticizing the leadership of the Front representatives in the two
provinces controlled by the pro-independence groups. Both political sectors
obtained similar results. Nickel exploitation by the pro-independence groups in
the northern province gave outstanding results in the first years of their
leadership, allowing them to form an association with the Canadian Falconbridge
company. However, the pro-independence groups attempts to establish a processing
plant with the Canadian company were complicated by similar plans in the French
State mining company, SLN-Eramet. FLNKS sympathizers protested blocking access
to the French-controlled installations.

Kanaky independence negotiations changed course in
April 1998. The FLNKS and Paris established the basis for a general agreement,
known at the Noumea Accord. The coexistence of two different systems - one that
follows Kanak traditions and the other imposed by France - proved to be the most
difficult issue to resolve. The Kanaks wanted respect for their culture and
their traditional civil organization. The Noumea Accord allowed for the
transference of powers that would assure a 'nearly sovereign' territory within
15 to 20 years. The Kanaks and the Caldoches agreed to share a common
'citizenship', while France acknowledged the 'shadows' remaining from the
colonial period. In November a referendum was held to ratify the Noumea
agreements. The Yes-vote was victorious with 69.14 per cent of the vote. In
December, the text of the law defined the application of the Noumea Accord. On
December 23, the National Assembly voted on the new country's legal foundation,
which covered the implementation of new institutions as well as a 'progressive'
transfer of state powers. Thierry Lataste was appointed new High Commissioner of
the island in July 1999. Two years later, J Pierre Frogier was elected Head of
Government.

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The territory consists of the island of New Caledonia
(16,700 sq km), the Loyaute/Loyalty islands (Ouvea, Lifou, Mare and Walpole),
the archipelagos of Chesterfield Avon, Huon, Beleip, and the island Noumea.

The whole group is located in southern Melanesia,
between the New Hebrides (Vanuatu) to the East and Australia to the West. Of
volcanic origin, the islands are mountainous with central reefs. The climate is
rainy, tropical, and suitable for agriculture. The vegetation is dense and the
subsoil is rich in nickel deposits.

SOCIETY

Peoples: Indigenous Kanaks/New
Caledonians are of Melanesian origin (the Kanaks group) 42.5 per cent, there are
French and descendants of French (known as caldoches) 37.1 per cent, as well as
Wallisian, 8.6 per cent, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Chinese and Polynesian
minorities.

Religions: Roughly 60 per cent
Catholic, 16 per cent Protestant and around 5 per cent Muslim.
Languages: French (official) and more than 30 Melanesian and Polynesian
dialects. Political Parties Rally for Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS);
Federation of Committees for the Co-ordination of Independentists, separatist;
National Front, nationalist, Socialist Kanak Liberation/Kanaky Future, extreme
left separatist. Social Organizations: The Caledonian Workers' Confederation (CTC),
the Federation of New Caledonian Miners' Unions (FSMNC); the New Caledonian
Federation of Laborers' and Employees' Unions (USOENC), and the Union of
Exploited Kanak Workers (USTKE).

Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia were originally
inhabited by Melanesians and Polynesians. Melanesians (from the Greek melas,
black and nesio, islands) live in a group of South Pacific islands which
include New Guinea, Kanaky (New Caledonia), Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Fiji, the
Santa Cruz Islands and their smaller neighbors, as well as on the Bismarck and
Louislade archipelagos. Because of the dark pigmentation of their skin and their
hair type, Melanesians were classified in the past as a negroid group. Their
physical characteristics make them a homogeneous group although recent studies
link them to the Papuans and even to Aboriginal communities in Australia.
Polynesians, meanwhile, stem from the same original ethnic groups, but are
distinguished from the Melanesians by a more robust physical constitution, fair
skin and straight hair. There are still common traits in language and physical
appearance although their societies have taken different directions.

The first Melanesians arrived 40,000 years ago,
probably from the south of the Asiatic continent. About 9,000 years ago, they
began to domesticate indigenous root crops and organize their social life around
agriculture. Later on, they also specialized in trade and maritime technology as
well as fishing. They generally moved in small groups, with a stay in any one
place limited by the duration of crop cycles. Polynesians, by comparison,
probably descended from Austronesians, ancient seafarers who arrived on the
Pacific archipelagos from South Asia around 4,000 BC, populating New Zealand/Aotearoa,
the Samoan islands, French Polynesia, Tonga, Tahiti, Hawaii and other smaller
islands where they still live.

The range of languages spoken by Melanesians and
Polynesians clearly displays the exceptional linguistic variation of Oceania,
where one quarter of all world languages are spoken. Melanesian and Polynesian
languages belong to the Malayo-Polynesian family - or more precisely to the
eastern branch of this group - which includes more than 800 dialects spoken by
approximately five million people. Melanesians speak more than 400 of the
dialects in this group in Fiji, the main dialect is spoken by nearly half the
population - some 334,000 people - and it is used in official journals and
publications. Other dialects include Motu, Roviana, Bambatana, Tolai and Yabem.
Christianity has been gaining ground and progressively replacing traditional
forms of religion, although some communities, Melanesian and Polynesian alike,
continue to practice cosmic initiation rights and animism.

This great cultural, social and linguistic diversity
suffered intense political upset with the arrival of the Europeans. Western
culture has reached even the most remote villages where some forms of business
and capitalist organization can be seen, along with an increasing dependence on
imported products. Traditional culture survives in marginal areas where there is
greater resistance to the dominant culture.

More About New
Caledonia

HISTORY

The western Pacific was first populated by
hunter-gatherers who came from South-East Asia at least 50,000 years ago. This
was the Pleistocene period, a time when the lowered sea level opened an easy
migration route through Indonesia and New Guinea, and as far as the Solomon
Islands. Without the technology and skills to cross the increasingly wide
stretches of open sea, these people, known as Papuans, were restricted to their
islands. Subsequent people, collectively known as Austronesians, moved into the
area from the west, mingling with the Papuans and eventually becoming the highly
diverse group of people we conveniently group together is 'Melanesians'.
Eventually the wider seas were conquered and the Austronesians, now known as
Lapita, settled over the Melanesian archipelagos. In about 1500 BC, they arrived
at New Caledonia from Vanuatu.

The Lapita were hunter-gatherers and are named after a
site near Kone on New Caledonia's main island, Grande Terre, where their
elaborate, pin-hole incised pottery was discovered (see the boxed text 'Lapita
Pottery' in the special section 'Kanak Arts') below. Other Lapita sites include
tumuli (burial mounds) on Grande Terre and Ile des Pins and petroglyphs on
Grande Terre (see the boxed text 'Petroglyphs'). From New Caledonia, the Lapita
continued to Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, and were the predecessors of Polynesians.
The Lapita had an enormous influence over a vast area of the Pacific from 1500
to 500 BC. They were highly skilled sailors and navigators, able to cross
hundreds of kilometres of sea, and trade and settlement were important to their
culture. They were also agriculturists.

From about the 11th century AD until the 18th century,
New Caledonia saw another wave of migration, this time from western Polynesian
islands such as Samoa, Tonga and Wallis. Threatened overpopulation forced these
islanders to set sail in long canoes, in search of small uninhabited islands, or
larger islands with a population they could dominate or live with. In New
Caledonia, they mainly landed on northern Grande Terre and the Loyalty Islands,
where they intermarried with the Melanesian tribes.

Pre-European Times

Over the centuries, the bulk of the islands'
inhabitants settled on the coast along river valleys and at mountain foothills.
Clan groupings varied in size, from as few as 50 to up to 5000, depending
largely on what the local environment supplied and the success of their own
agriculture. They cultivated yams, taro, manioc and other crops, the terraced
fields they once worked are still visible on Grande Terre. With no domesticated
animals or large four-legged mammals living on the islands, the locals relied on
fish, roussettes (flying foxes) and cannibalism for protein. Interclan wars were
common and eating the flesh of the enemy was an important ritual believed to
enhance the power of the victorious clan. Most clans were isolated from each
other, leading to the evolution of the many dialects in New Caledonia.

Life centred around the grande case, the clan's largest (conical) hut, where
the chief lived. This hut was topped by a wooden carving known as a fleche
fatiere, which symbolised the presence of the ancient and highly worshipped
ancestors. Rule within the clan was by a revered tradition known in French as
la coutume (custom), which is not written down but recalled y the tribal
elders (see boxed text below).

European Arrival

In the late 16th century, the Spanish sent out
expeditions in search of Terra Australis Incognita, the great southern continent
that was believed must exist to counterbalance the landmasses of the northern
hemisphere. They located the Solomon Islands, as well as islands in northern
Vanuatu, but nothing farther south. Each new discovery gave rise to myths of
Pacific paradise and 'the noble savage'. It wasn't until the late 18th century
that the first European arrived in New Caledonia. by that time it was inhabited
by Melanesians and Polynesians estimated to number at least 60,000. The English
explorer James Cook spotted Grande Terre in 1774 when midway through his second
scientific expedition in search of Terra Australis, Cook named this new land New
Caledonia because the terrain reminded him of the highlands of Scotland (called
Caledonia by the Romans).

Cook and his crew, aboard HMS Resolution,
anchored off the north-east coast on 5 September 1774 and spent 10 days
exploring the region. Cook was struck by the civility of the 'natives' and made
the gift of a pair of dogs to his friend, the Kanak chief Ti-Pooma. He gave a
pair of pigs - the island's first such creatures - to another chief. Cook later
commented that the natives were 'robust and active, courteous and friendly, of
honest nature and the women modest'. The Resolution then sailed down the
east coast of the main island (without sighting the Loyalty Islands) until cook
came across the beautiful Ile des Pins (Isle of Pines). The Island's 'fine
timber', he hoped, would be suitable for shipping purposes. After some trouble
negotiating the reefs encircling the island, Cook eventually landed. His
carpenter declared the wood perfect for shipping, making the island one of the
few places in the South Pacific where a large ship could hope for a new mast.

French interest in New Caledonia was sparked 14 years
later when Louis XVI sent comte de la Perouse, Jean-Francois de Gaalup, to
explore in economic potential. But La Perouse and his crew on the Astrolobe
and La Boussole disappeared in a cyclone on the reefs off Wanikolo in the
south-east of the Solomon Islands. A mission to find them set out from France on
28 September 1791. Led by Admiral Bruny d'Estrecasteaux and Captain Huon de
Keimadeck the Esoparance and La Recherche landed at Balade on 17 April 1793,
having sailed past Vanikolo where, unbeknown to them, two survivors of La
Perouse's expedition were still living. Shortly after arriving in New Caledonia
de Kermadec died. D'Entrecasteaux and members of his crew carried out an
exploration of northern New Caledonia, crossing by foot from the east to the
west coast and back again. They stayed a month but their reaction to the
islanders was very different to Cook's. The admiral reported them to be
aggressive thieves and cannibals, the women prepared to sell themselves.

One theory given for the different perceptions of the
English and French is that Cook was naive, although this seems unlikely given
his previous extensive exploration in the Pacific. Another theory is that the
French explorers had harsher and more critical attitudes. there's also the
possibility that, in the two decades between the arrival of the two groups, new
clans (with different practices) moved into the Balade area and these were the
people the French met. D'Entrecasteaux made the first European sighting of Ouvea,
the northernmost of the Loyalty Islands, and died during the return journey to
France in 1793. In the same year, the English captain Raven on the Britannia
sighted Mare, the southernmost of the Loyalty Islands, and reported the presence
of sandalwood. But it wasn't until 1827 that the islands were correctly charted
by the French explorer Dumont d'Urville.

Hunters & Traders

British and American whalers were the first commercial
seafarers to make landfall on the islands. The British whalers wet out from the
small Australian settlement of Port Jackson (now Sydney) and by 1840 had set uip
an oil extraction station on Lifou, the largest of the Loyalty Islands. However,
they were not generally welcomed by the islanders and the first skirmishes
between locals and Europeans took place here. The whalers were followed y
sandalwood traders, who were the first Europeans to have any real impact on the
islanders. They came in search of sandalwood trees, where sweet-smelling roots
and core were traditionally burnt in incense in Chinese temples.

As supplies in
the northern Pacific had already severely diminished, the traders' attention
turned to the south. Between 1840 and 1850, traders operating out of Australia
stripped first Ile des Pins, then the Loyalty Islands and finally Grande Terre's
east coast. 'they also collected beche-de-mer (sea cucumbers). The traders gave
the islanders metal tools such as axes, nails and fish-hooks, or tobacco and
alcohol in return for the sandalwood. With their ships loaded, they sailed to
china, where the fragrant wood was traded for tea for Australia.

As the Chinese market expanded and sandalwood supplies
diminished, the traders' tactics became more threatening and arrogant. Tensions
developed because of cheating and the abuse of local customs. The traders also
brought diseases such as smallpox, measles, dysentery, influenza, syphilis and
leprosy onto the islands. The indigenous people and their medicine men had no
cures for these afflictions and vast numbers of people died. Eventually, fierce
confrontations broke out between the locals and the traders. In 1849 the crew of
the American vessel Cutter were massacred and eaten by the Futuna clan, which
lived between Balade and Pouebo. Later in the 19th century, many Kanaks were
taken to work on foreign plantations as labourers blackirders (slavers; see the
boxed text 'Blackbirding' in the Loyalty Islands, below).

The Missionaries

Although their aims were ultimately the same, ie, to
bring Christianity to the heathen islanders, the Catholic and Protestant
missionaries were great adversaries. They personified not just two branches of
faith but two highly competitive nations: France (Catholic) and England
(Protestant). The battles that ensured, especially on the Loyalty Islands,
wrecked havoc on their converts. Two Protestant Samoan missionaries from the
London Missionary Society (LMS) were the first to arrive on Ile des Pins in
1841. The LMS had learnt elsewhere in the Pacific (at the cost of the lives of
several of their European brethren) that it was safer to send Polynesian
converts into unknown territory to break the ice.

Though soon driven off Ile des
Pins by unreceptive locals, the British missionaries successfully established
themselves on Lifou in 1842. Meanwhile, seven French Marists, sent out by the
Societe de la Propagation de la Foi (Society to Propagate the Faith),
established a mission at Balade on the north-east coast of Grande Terre in
December 1843. The mission was demolished four years later by angry locals
suffering from drought, starvation and diseases inadvertently introduced by the
missionaries. In retaliation the French military arrived and destroyed the
tribal settlement, driving the locals into the mountains. When the missionaries
attempted to re-establish themselves in 1851, they brought the French military
with them for protection.

The missionaries changed Kanak culture and daily life
profoundly. Their 'word of God' was the word of a dominant culture imposing its
values on the local people. Nakedness was considered offensive and 'proper'
clothing was introduced, while children were sometimes separated from their
parents to live and attend school at the mission. The British missionaries
introduced the game of cricket, and stamped out traditional games. Converts were
made to sleep on beds and drink tea. Polygamy, along with cannibalism, was
customary to some tribes and the missionaries staunchly campaigned for the
eradication of their practices.

One of the major stumbling blocks between the
missionaries and the Kanaks was the concept of land ownership. The missionaries
believed they had 'purchased' a block of land from the local clan and therefore
what that land produced was theirs. Melanesian custom, however, did not recognise the idea of private land ownership. Communal crops were harvested and
distributed among the clan. When the Melanesians tried to take yams from the
missionaries' fields, the missionaries branded them as thieves and eventually
used dogs to guard their stores.

The relative success of early missions is attributed in
part to the threat posed by the French military. The missions offered protection
to displaced tribes and, as long as they maintained their authority over the
clan, local chiefs were ready to compromise with the missionaries. But as the
missions became more powerful, customary life began to break down. People were
forced to choose between the mission's leadership and its dualistic
good-against-evil doctrine, or the rule of the clan's chief and their
traditional beliefs. On top of this, tribes were soon divided along religious
lines, and were soon divided among refugees lines, and wars broke out. It was
not until the later part of the 19th century that these 'body wars' were
suppressed by the French military.

French Annexation

In the early 1850s, with fewer South Pacific islands
for Britain and France to choose from and the LMS becoming more influential,
there was growing concern in France that Britain would take possession of New
Caledonia. The French were looking for a strategic military location, as well as
an alternative penal settlement to the notorious Devil's Island, off French
Guyana in south America, which was riddled with malaria.

In 1853, Napoleon III
ordered the annexation of New Caledonia, under the pretext of protecting
France's floundering Catholic mission. When the French flag was raised at Balade
on 24 September 1853, Britain did not react because it was too busy with newly
acquired possessions in new Zealand and Australia. In 1862 the first governor
was appointed and, for the second half of the 19th century, New Caledonia was
governed by a military regime.

The Penal Colony

New Caledonia was founded as a penal colony and the
first shiploads of convicts arrived in May 1864 at Port-de-France (present-day
Noumea). It took four months to sail from France to New Caledonia around the
Cape of Good Hope. Conditions were miserable. Those who survived the voyage were
kept in large huts on Ile Nou, off Noumea harbour, and carried out the colony's
public works, including building Noumea's Cathedrale St Joseph and most of
Grande Terre's roads.

The most difficult convicts were sent to Camp Brun,
referred to as 'the slaughter-house', where men were put to hard labour, housed
in dungeons and often beaten. The guillotine was brought to New Caledonia in
1867 and, in the next 21 years, about 80 heads rolled. Almost 21,000 male and
female convicts were sent from France to New Caledona for various felonies.
Political prisoners were high on the list and, in the eight years following the
1871 Paris Commune uprising, many 4300 Communards were deported.

Most Communards were sent to Ile des Pins but a few of
the more 'dangerous' ones were incarcerated on the Ducos Peninsula, across the
harbour from Noumea. Among the more famous of these was Henri de Rochefort, a
newspaper editor who was a member of parliament in 1869. Rochefort and a few
others escaped to Australia in 1874. Rochefort then went to the USA and the UK,
campaigning for the release of his compatriots in New Caledonia. Another
well-known deportee was the feminist and anarchist Louise Michel, who was also
imprisoned at Ducos. She had earned the name 'the Red Virgin' during the Paris
Commune riots and refused any special treatment on Ducos. After the general
amnesty in 1879, she worked in Noumea, sympathising with the Kanaks' struggle
against colonial rule, and later returned to France. She wrote a collection of
Melanesian legends, titled Legendes at Chantes de Gestes Canoques.

The deportees on Ile des Pins suffered from isolation
and homesickness, and many young poets and artists gave up and suicided. These
artisans and intellectuals had philosophies that helped disrupt much of the
zealous missionary work going on at the time. They shared a collective hatred of
the bourgeoisie and especially the clergy. Also in 1871, 26,000 Arab warriors in
Algeria, France's North African colony, revolted against the past 40 years' colonisation.
The rebellion was crushed and the Berber leaders captured and sent
to Ile des Pins and Ducos. Many sent 50 years in the colony before their
sentences expired and they were able, as old men, to return to their homeland.
Others simply stayed.

Once freed, the ex-convicts were encouraged to stay and
settle in New Caledonia, and women prisoners were shipped out from France to
find husbands among them. The experiment was not entirely successful as the
women preferred the colons, free settlers who were migrating to the territory.
Many of the convicts returned to France.

The Revolt of 1878

In the 1860s and 1870s, aided by the discovery of
nickel in 1864, a program was set uip to bring settlers from France. Hostilities
between the Kanaks and the French arose when the settlers encroached in tribal
lands. The process of taking Melanesian land began in earnest when the governor,
Guillain, introduced the system of contonnement, which gave him the right
to sell land, with unlimited grazing rights, to French settlers at a fixed
price, and to appoint or dismiss Kanak chiefs. Large tracts of land were taken
over for cattle farming. This destroyed the Kanaks' taro and yam beds and
wrecked their irrigation channels. As a result, in the two years leading up to
the Revolt of 1878, the Kanaks were in real fear of famine. Another grievance
was the settlers' deliberate desecration of tribal gurial grounds in their
search for native skulls and artefacts, which were prized in Paris.

Some of the best land was taken from local leader, Chef
Ataf (Chief Ataf) to be used for a women's prison farm at Ponwhary, near La Foa.
To voice his dismay, Chef Ataf met the governor, Olry, at nearby Fort Teremba,
Ataf produced to sacks- one filled with fertile soil, the other with rocks - and
told the governor 'this is what we used to have, and here is what you are
leaving us'. His words fell on deaf ears. The Revolt of 1878 broke out around La
Foa on 25 June. Led by Ataf, the Kanaks attacked the gendarmerie (police
station), killing the police, settler families and workers. The Kanaks then
marched on Fort Teremba, unsuccessfully. In the first two days about 120 whites,
including women and children, were killed. The revolt continued for seven
months, involving clans all the way from Boulouparis to Poya. In all, 200 French
and 1200 Kanaks, including Ataf an d several other chiefs, were killed. As a
result of the rebellion, 800 Kanaks were exiled to either the Iles Belep or Ile
des Pins. Others were sent to Tahiti, never to return. The repression which
followed, damaged the Kanak culture and way of life forever.

Establishing the
Colonial Order

Full-scale colonisation began at the end of the19th
century. However, it was the indigenat system, instituted by the French
soon after the 1878 revolt, that was to be the most damning aspect of
colonisation. This system put Kanaks outside French common law, legally giving
them a subordinate status. It subjected them to the whims of the ruling colonial
administration and made segregation between Kanaks and Europeans legal. The
locals were forced into reservation in the mountainous highland, which they
could leave only with police permission. Inter-island trading routes among Kanaks were halted and religious or ancestral ties to sites and places were
ignored. In the end, only 11% of the land on Grande Terre, mostly hilly regions
in scattered areas, was left to the Kanaks. They were forced to work for
settlers or the colonial authorities and a 10 CFP reward was offered to anyone
capturing a 'native in an irregular situation.' When Governor Paul Feillet came
to Noumea in June 1894 he initiated a rigorous campaign to recruit free settlers
from France. Families with 5000 CFP and farming knowledge were given free
passage and 15 to 25 hectares of coffee. As the governor hoped, coffee exports
soared during the late 1890s. When the flow of convicts stopped in 1897, the
settlers' free-labour supply was extinguished (although the Kanaks were soon
brought in to fill the convicts' place). The metallurgical industry, whose mines
had previously been worked by hundreds of convicts, faced the same labour
crisis. Recruits were were sought and people from Indonesia, Vanuatu, Vietnam
and Japan answered the call. The Societe Le Neckel (SLN) was established in
1910, financed by the Rothschild corporation.

The Kanak population began to decline, dropping from
42,500 in 1887 to only 28,000 in 1901. A later Kanak leader, Jean-Marie Tjibaou,
described the Kanaks' demise: 'The tribes had nothing to do but die because
there was nothing left to eat because there were no people left to work at
growing things to eat'. The indigenat system was reviewed every decade
until WWII, with the French authorities deciding on each occasion that the
natives hadn't reached sufficient moral or intellectual standards to run their
own affairs. Not until 1946, when the system was abolished and Kanaks received
French citizenship, were they allowed to leave their reservation without
permission.

The World Wars

During WWI, 5500 Caldoche and Kanak men were recruited
to form the French Pacific Banalion, which fought in North Africa, Italy and
southern France. The Kanaks had been forcibly recruited, unable under la
coutume to disobey the command of their chief, who in turn was pressured by
the colonial authorities to provide fighters. In all, 372 Kanaks died for
France, leading to the 1917 revolt in the Kone-Hienghene area when Chef Noel
called on Kanaks to fight the French at home as ably as they were fighting the
Germans aboard. Two hundred Kanaks, including chef Noel, and 11 French died in
the uprising. A reward of 1000 CFP had been offered by the colonial
administration for Noel's head. The Kanak population reached to lowest level
shortly after WWI. In 1923, the teaching of French in schools became compulsory
and the practices of Kanak medicine men were outlawed, with the threat of jail
for anyone practising 'wizardly'. During the 1920s and 1930s, the country became
economically isolated, settlement slowed down and the colony stagnated, this
situation did not change until WWII.

the majority of French people in New Caledonia chose to
support President Charles de Gaulle and the Free French Forces as opposed to the
collaborationist Vichy regime that took over France in WWII. The colony's US
allies were given permission to set up a military base on Grande Terre and, in
early 1942, 40,000 American and a smaller number of New Zealand personnel
arrived. Under the leadership of Admiral Halsey, the Allied headquarters was set
up in Noumea. From here attacks were launched against the Japanese in the
Philippines and in the Battle of the Coral Sea. The Kanaks have positive
memories of the US presence. For the first time, they were employed for their
labour and received good wages. They were also impressed by what they saw as
relatively easy interaction between black and white American soldiers. This
taste of a different Western culture would change the lifestyle of many Kanak
families.

The Post-War Period

New Caledonia's status was changed from a colony to a
French overseas territory after WWII and Kanaks immediately began to formulate
their own political and social demands. Chef Naiseline of Mare prfepared a
'native bill' and argued that, as Kanaks had fought and died under the French
flag during both world wars, they were entitled to the rights of French
citizens. In 1946, Kanaks were given French citizenship and the more privileged,
such as chiefs, priests and former soldiers, became eligible to vote the
majority of Kanaks didn't receive the right to vote for another 11 years). The
authorities finally abolished the demoralising indigenat syhstem. In 1953, the
first political party involving Kanaks was formed. Union Caledonienne (UC) was a
coalition of Kanaks, white small-scale landowners, the missions and union
supporters. It was led by Maurice Lenormand, a Frenchman who had been sent to
the colony for military servide3 20 years earlier. Under the banner, 'two
colours one people', the UC won 25 seats in the Territorial Assembly election in
that same year, becoming the majority party on the General council. Nine seat
were held by Kanaks, including one by Roch Pidjot, the man who later became
known as the 'grandfather of the independence struggle'. Pidjot later became the
first Kanak elected to the French National Assembly.

The nickel boom of the 1950s and 1960s brought
prosperity but also caused an imbalance in the country's way of life. Mines
appeared everywhere, farmers became miners and Kanaks left their reservations,
lured by work and money. The door was open for their entry to the mining
industry; Japanese workers had been expelled from the colony following the
attack on Pearl Habour, and many Vietnamese and Indonesian workers had gradually
been repatriated. By the late 1960s there was a new wave of immigrants -
ni-Vanuatu (citizens of Vanuatu), Wallisians and Tahitians - who arrived on the
nickel 'bandwagon', and Noumea went through its own population boom. Apartment
blocks seemed to go up overnight, although in the villages there was still no
running water or electricity. Schools and offices were now open to Kanaks, but
segregation and discrimination continued in other areas of society. The boom
harvested bitter fruits. The Kanaks wanted their land back, while the Caldoches
wanted to be free from a growing state administration run by people they didn't
know. he French administrators' Pacific paradise was slipping away, and the
stage was set for the violent political struggles of the next two decades.

The Independence
Movement

Political consciousness was raised by the first Kanak
university students, who returned from France in 1969 having witnessed the
student protests in Paris the year before. One such student was Nidoish
Naisseline, the son of the chief of Mare, who formed the Foulards Rouges (Red
Berets), a group that took pride in its Kanak culture and broke traditional
taboos (such as eating at all-white cafes). Having witnessed the evolution of
independence in Fiji (1970) and Papua New Guinea (1975), new political groups
formed and wanted more than the limited autonomy that the UC had previously
aspired to. In 1975 the Caledonian Multi-Racial Union (UMNC) was the first party
to demand total independence from France. Two year later, it changed its name to
Front Uni de Lineration Kanak (FULK) and, with another pro-independence party,
Parti de Liberation Kanak (Palika), put independence and restoration of Kanak
land squarely on the agenda for the election of 1977. But by now Kanaks were a
minority in their own land. Even if they were united for independence, they were
still outnumbered.

With the election of Socialist Francois Mitterrand to
the French presidency in 1981, Kanaks had great expectations that their right to
self-determination would be respected. But the promises remained empty.
Meanwhile, Mitterrand's election was largely opposed by New Caledonia's
right-wing Caldoche community, who were supporters of the Rassemblement pour
Caledonnie dans la Republique (RPCR), set up in 1977 and led since then by
Jacques Lafteur. By this time, the Kanaks' reclamation of traditional land was
well under way and had received a mixed reaction from the Caloches. some were
prepared to sell out, while others simply dug in. Sporadic violence between the
settlers and Kanaks broke out. In 1981`, the UC general secretary, Pierre
Declercq, was assassinated. In 1983, round-table talks were held in France
between the government and independence leaders, at which France accepted the
'innate and active rights to independence of Kanak people'. In turn, the
movement's leaders recognised that other communities in the territory,
principally the Caldoches, were 'victim of history' and had as much right to
live in New Caledonia as the Kanaks.

Les Evenements

The turning point for the independence movement was
1984, the year that Les Evenements (the Events), as the French refer to the
following two years of widespread chaos, began.

In 1984, several pro-independence parties merged to form
a new movement, the Front de Liberation Nationale Kanak et Socialiste, commonly
called the FLNKS including FULK, Palika and its largest single component, the UC,
the FLNKS was seen as a legitimate mouthpiece for Melanesian independantistes.
The UC president, Jean-Marie Tjibaou, was its first leader. The party
immediately boycotted the forthcoming territorial election. The RPCR won 34 of
the 42 seats. A week later, the FLNKS proclaimed the Provisional government of
Kanaky, presided over by Tjibaou. Ten days later, mixed-race settlers killed 10
Kanaks near Hienghene (see the boxed text 'The Hienghene Massacre' in the
Northern Grande Terre chapter). With the country on the brink of civil war, a
plan that included a referendum on independence and self-government 'in
association' with France was proposed in January 1985. but it was rejected by
the independence movement. A few days later, once of the most radical FLNKS
leaders, Eloi Machoro, was killed by paramilitary marksmen near La Foa (see the
boxed text 'Eloi Machoro' in the Southern Grande Terre chapters). His death
sparked street riots all over New Caledonia. French paratroopers were flown in
and a six-month state of emergency was declared.

France decided to usher in a new program of land
reforms and increased autonomy for Kanaks. four regional councils were to be
established at an election set for September. The main right-wing parties, the
RPCR and the Front National condemned the plan. At the election, the FLNKS won
the three regional seats, while the RPCR kept control of the large Noumea-based
electorate. After the French legislative elections in May 1986, an uneasy calm
prevailed as the new conservative minister in charge of the territory released
his plan for New Caledonia's future. It stripped the territory's four regional
councils of much of their autonomy and abolished the office that had been buying
back land for Kanaks. A referendum on the question of independence was scheduled
for late 1987. The FLNKS wanted eligible voters to consist only of Kanaks and
those people who were born in the territory with at least one parent also of New
Caledonisn birth. With a United Nation's resolution backing this demand, the
FLNKS decided if France would not agree to it, that it would boycott the
referendum. by now rifts had begun to appear in the FLNKS.

In December 1986, the UN General Assembly visited 89 to
24 in favour of New Caledonia's re-inscription on the UN's decolonisation list.
It was an important step towards independence, as it gave international credence
to the territory's 'inalienable right to self-determination'. Until 13 September
1987, the referendum on independence was held and boycotted by 84% of Kanaks. Of
the 50% of eligible voters who cast a ballot (which included everyone who had
lived in the country for more than three years, such as all the nickel-boom
immigrants of the 1960s and 1970s), 98% were against independence. The
referendum was trumpeted as a resounding victory by loyalists in the territory
and the conservative French government. In October, the seven men charged with
murdering the 10 Kanaks at Hienghene in 1984 went before the court. The
magistrate ruled that they had acted in 'self-defence' and would not stand
further trial. The French National Assembly approved a new plan for the
territory put forward by the government in January 1987, and called an election
for 24 April 1988, the same day as the first round of voting for the French
presidency. The new plan redefined the four regional council boundaries so that
the Kanaks were likely to lose one region and be left with the country's most
underdeveloped and resourceless areas.

The Ouvea Crisis

After years of its proposals being rejected by France,
the FLNKS announced its 'muscular mobilisation' campaign. Tjibaou explained the
Kanaks' decision to turn to violence. 'We are on a battlefield and we are just
dead people awaiting our turn to die. The balance of power is such that if we
didn't have international support, the colonial power could wipe us out. In
April 1988, the Ouvea crisis erupted (see the boxed text 'Death on Ouvea' in the
Loyalty Islands). The Socialists were returned to power in France and a
concerted effort was made to end the bloodshed in New Caledonia.

Accords de Matignon

On 26 June 1958, the newly elected French Prime
Minister, Michel Rocard, brokered the Accords de Matignon, an historic peace
agreement signed at the Hotel Matignon, the Prime Minister's office, by the two
New Caledonian leaders, Tjibaou and Lafleur. Under the accords, it was agreed
that New Caledonia would be divided into three regions: the Noumea-based South
Province, the North Province and the Loyalty Islands Province. The last two
would both be likely to come under Kanak control in an election. Economic
development would target Kanak areas and amnesty with granted for all political
offences (excluding murder) carried out before the accords were signed. The
accords stated that a referendum on self-determination would be held in 10
years, with all New Caledonians established in the territory by 1988, and their
descendants, eligible to vote. Many in New Caledonia saw the accords as a
trade-off, with the FLNKS accepting a delay in its desired timetable for
independence and the RPCR almost admitting to the inevitability of New Caledonia
being cut off from France.

On 4 May 1989, Tjibaou and his second in command,
Yeiwene Yeiwene, were assassinated (see the boxed text 'Death on Ouvea' in the
Loyalty Islands). With the loss of its leaders, the FLNKS was in turmoil and the
FULK, which had continually opposed the Accords de Matignon, left the umbrella
organisation.

Towards Independence

As agreed in the accords, France has been pouring money
into construction and infrastructure in an attempt in 'rebalance' the
territory's economy and give a greater share of resources to Kanaks. In 1988
alone, French financial assistance amounted to US$750 million. electricity and
telephone have been installed in remote villages, and Melanesian public servants
are being trained in France. Tourism is being expanded on the Loyalty Islands,
and a new mining centre, expected to create up to 3000 new jobs and to include a
nickel smelter at Kone, is mooned for the North Province.

Right-wing and many pro-independence circles are now in
favour of a 'negotiated independence' and power-sharing. The idea is to increase
authority while retaining links with France. A new step was taken in May 1978,
when the RPCR's Jacques Lafleur, the FLNKS's Roch Wamytan and the French Prime
Minister, Lionel Jospin, signed the Accord de Noumea (Noumea Agreement). It
focused on the gradual transfer of power from the French State to Ne Caledonia
and on the recognition of Kanak culture, and was endorsed at a referendum
(72% in favour) in November 1998. The preamble to the accord talks about a
period of colonial 'shadow' but one 'not devoid of light' (see the boxed text
'The Accord de Noumea'). Under the Accord de Noumea, New Caledonians are to
agree on a name, anthem, flag and currency design for the country over the next
decade. A referendum on full independence is now scheduled to take place in 15
to 20 years.

POPULATION & PEOPLE

The last census, carried out in 1996, tallied the
population at 196,870. The Kanaks are the largest cultural group, making up
44.1% of the population, or 86,800 people. Europeans or those of European
descent are the second-largest group at 34.3% or 67,500 (43% of these people
were born overseas). Wallisians account for 9%. Indonesians 2.5%, Tahitians
2.6%, Vietnamese 1.4%, and ni-Vanuatu Indians, West Indians, Arabs and others make
up the remaining 6%.

New Caledonia's population dropped dramatically soon
after the European set up in the 1850s, only starting to pick up again in the
1930s. In 1887, there was estimated to be 62,500 people, comprising 65% Kanak,
30% European and 2% other. A count taken in 1921 shoed a large drop to 47,500,
of which Kanaks accounted for 57%, Europeans 29% and others, mainly made up of
indentured miners, 13%. This period was the all-time low for the Kanaks, their
population having been decimated by disease, war and the indigenat system. By
1969, the continued tide of immigrants seeking labour, the growth in European
families and the revival of the Kanaks took the total population up to 100,000,
though by now Kanaks were a minority (46%) in their own land. Further rapid
growth has meant that about 49% of the population is under the age of 25.

The population is largely confined to what is referred
to as 'Greater Noumea', which includes the capital and nearby towns of Dumbea,
Paita and Mont-Dore. This conurbation accounts for 60% of all Caledonians. Those
from outside here are collectively known as broussards, ie, someone who comes
from la brousse. The total density for the country is 10.5 people per square kilometre.

Kanaks

Kanaks or Ti-Va-Ouere, meaning 'Brothers of the Earth',
are Melanesians, the group of people who inhabit many of the islands in the
south-western Pacirfic. Although in anthropological terms they are often
referred to as Melanesians, the country's indigenous people prefer to be calld
Kanaks, and some call their country Kanaky (see the boxed text 'What's in a
Name?').

Generally very courteous, Kanaks also tend to be rather
shy and often hesitant or even seemingly disinterested in being the the
initaiator of contact. However, once you've passed the reservation facade,
you'll find they are warm people filled with natural good humour. Repression and
the erosion of their customs, however, have led to a general resentment towards
the French. When walking through a village they tend to treat every passer-bay
with 'bonjour' and, when being introduced, usually shake hands lightly.

Since 1946, Kanaks have automatically been French
citizens. The large majority live in clan communities inland or along Grande
Terre's cast coast, on Ile des Pins and on the Loyalty Islands, where they make
up 98% of the population. Before colonisation, tribes kept mainly to the coast,
but during the discriminatory indigenat system they were forcibly moved off
their traditional lands. Today, many tribes live in foreign areas distant from
their birthplace and natural homeland.

In recent decades, Kanaks have felt compelled to
forsake their tribal life in search of work and education in Noumea. Since the
Accords de Matignon, the imbalance of facilities throughout the country has been
recognised. Consequently, the French government has pumped substantial funds
into provincial areas in an attempt to create local employment and to build
secondary
and technical schools so that people do not have to leave their families and
communities.

French

New Caledonia's 'French'
population has several distinct groups. The rural settlers, or Caldoches, are
those who were born in New Caledonia, with ancestral ties that go back to the
days of the convicts, or to the early French settlers, who were known as colons.
They generally settled in rural areas along Grande Terre's west coast, where
many continue to run large cattle properties. While some Caldoches also set up
on the east coast in the late 1800s during the coffee boom, most sold up and
left prior to or around Les Evenements, re-establishing themselves in the south
or west. Fore more, see the boxed text 'What's in a Name?'. Distinct from the
Caldoche are those, of French descent, who were born in New Caledonia in recent
times and who live mainly in Noumea. They're variously referred to in French as
les autres (the others) or les non-Kanaks or, more preferably, simply
Caledonians.

The French who came to New
Caledonia to work for a few years with the benefit of high wages are called
metros (short for metropoles, meaning from metropolitan France). Another term
sometimes used for them, although one that is not appreciated at all, is
zoreilles. This name, derived from the French term les oreilles (the ears),
originated in convict times when, as the story goes, the guards used to cup
their hands behind their ears in order to eavesdrop on the prisoners' talk.
Noumea, sometimes called the 'Paris of the Pacific', is the chosen home for most
metros. There's a small community of about 2000 pieds noirs (literally, 'black
feet'), as Algerian-born French colonialists are called by their fellow French.
They moved to New Caledonia after the fall of Algiers in 1962.

Other New Caledonians

The other races of people now
making u the country's population arrived for work reasons at various times in
New Caledonia's history. At the turn of the 20th century, indentured labourers
from Indonesia, Vanuatu, Vietnam and Japan arrived to work the mines. Their
families now make up close-knit communities, centres mainly in Noumea, though a
few of the more intrepid have set up shops and businesses elsewhere on Grande
Terre.

Coinciding with the nickel boom
of the 1950s, Polynesians from Tahiti and the French-controlled islands of
Wallis and Futuna (located north-east of Fiji) began to arrive in Noumea. In the
late 1960s and early 1970s, these Polynesians boomed again along with the
nickel.

What's in a Name?

The term 'Kanak' (or canaque as
the French originally spelt it) was invented by early Europeans living in
Polynesia. It is probably derived from the word 'Kanakas', which was used for
people from the South Pacific who were abducted by blackbirders (slavers) to
work in Australia and other places in the 19th century. The word was viewed by
New Caledonia's indigenous people as an insult and it eventually died out as the
French colonial authorities preferred to use 'indigene' (native). It wasn't
until the early 1970s, when political consciousness and cultural revival were on
the agenda, that New Caledonia's indigenous people reclaimed and became proud of
the name 'Kanak'.

The word 'Caldoche' originated
in the 1960s and first appeared in Le Petit Larousse, a well-known French
dictionary, in 1983. It was initially used as a pejorative (it's a long story...
something to do with WWII and rhyming with the derogatory slang term 'Boche'
used for the Germans), and there are still some people in New Caledonia who are
not fond of the term.

KANAK ARTS

Kanak arts range from ancient Lapita pottery to
powerful contemporary sculptures representing old spirits. Kanaks are skilled
and handy craftspeople, using natural materials for a wide range of purposes.
However, up until the early 1990s, Kanak arts were not big business and
exhibitions were few.

All that is now changing, largely due to the promotional
efforts of the Agence de Development de la Culture Kanak (ADCK - Agency for the
Development of Kanak Culture), which put on a season of Kanak music, theatre,
dance and art in 1995. These days, the Centre Culturel Tjibaou in Noumea
organises a year-long program of arts events.

Dance

Traditional Kanak gatherings were always accompanied by
dances designed to strengthen relationships within the clan and with ancestors.
These dances conveyed a message or told a legend, often regarding aspects of
everyday life - fishing, a turtle swimming, a case (traditional hut) being
built. Dancers painted themselves to appear beautiful before the gathered clans
and to please the watching ancestors. The steps were powerful and the feet
pounded the earth energetically. Wooden masks adorned with local materials such
as bark, feathers and leaves - physical links with the invisible world - were
exhibited or worn only by le chef (the chief).

These days, dance workshops are held to help Kanaks
learn traditional movements or newly created dances - usually to perform them at
large events such as the Festival des Arts du Facifique (Festival of Pacific
Arts), which is held every four years and was last held in Noumea in 2000.
Should you happen to be in Noumea when a cruise ship docks, you may catch a
performance of We Ce Ca, a troupe of 30 young dancers formed to welcome visitors
and to perform at special functions.

The pilou is a dance that tells the stories of the clan
and is unparalleled as a physical expression of Kanak culture. Although the
steps may appear similar in each dance, they are in fact quite different, each
telling a story about a birth or marriage, preparations for battle, or the
arrival of the missionaries and the subsequent conversion to Christianity. Pilou
were staged at important ceremonies, when a new chief took over or after young
males had been circumcisedand had to be presented to the rest of the
tribe, for example. Even greater than a normal pilou was the pilou-pilou,
stated to commemorate the death of a chief. Human flesh was sometimes eaten
during the feast and, realizing this, the missionaries assumed these dances were
cannibalistic rites and denounced them. Later, colonial authorities took it a
step further by banning pilou because of their high energy and the trance-like
state they induced. The last great pilou was staged in 1951.

Music

Music-making was an important element of traditional
ceremonies such as initiation, courting or the end of mourning, and always
accompanied dance and sung. Sometimes instruments were played simply for the
clan's entertainment. Above all, however, Kanak music is vocal. There are no Kanak words for music or musical instrument. Rather their terminology is more
appropriately translated as 'sound-producing' instruments, the classing example
being the conch shell, which, when blown, represents the call of the chief or
the voice of an ancestor. Many instruments were made for a specific occasion.

Wetr singers from Lifou perform at the
Festival of Pacific Arts

String instruments died not exist. Rhythm instruments,
called bwanjep, were used during ceremonies and were played by a group of
men. More melodious instruments, known as hago, were played solo.

Traditional Instruments

Among the instruments used in ancient Kanak culture
were (with Anglised names) the:

Jews-harp (wadohnu in the Nengone
language where it originated) made from a dried piece of coconut palm leaf held
between the teeth and an attached segment of soft nerve leaf. When the harp is
struck, the musician's mouth acts as an amplifying chamber, producing a soft,
low sound.

Coconut-leaf whizzer (maguk-in
Pije): a piece of coconut leaf attached to a string and twirled, producing a
noise like a humming bee.

Oboe: made from hollow grass
stems or bamboo.

End-blown flute: made from a
50cm-long hollowed pawpaw leaf stem. The pitch varies depending on the position
of the lips and how forcefully the air is blown through the flute.

Bamboo stamping tubes: struck
vertically against the ground and played at main events.

Percussion instruments: These
included hitting sticks, palm sheaths that were strummed to hit, and clappers
made from a hard bark filled with dried grass and soft niaouli bark, tied
together and hit against each other.

Rattles: worn around the legs and
made from coconut leaves, shells and certain fruits.

Conch or Triton's shell: used
like a trumpet on special occasions and played by a special appointee.

Contemporary Music

Most modern Kanak music is labelled 'Kaneka', a term
coined at a Kanak music seminar held in the town of Canala (on Grande Terre) in
1986. Born out of the Kanak struggle for independence, politics was one of its
main driving forces. At the time, local musicians saw a need to develop a
musical concept that incorporated both current techniques and Kanak heritage. so
they blended modern instruments with ancestral harmonies and rhythms, and
married traditional stories and legends with lyrics that call for an end to
repression. Most songs are sung in Kanak languages. Immensely popular with young
people throughout the country Kaneka's chief exponents are bands such as Mexem
(from Lifou), Gurejele (Mare) and Vamaley (Voh). A contemporary Kanak group
that's big with teenagers is OK! Ryos, a young trio from Mare headed by Edouard
Wamejo. Compilation CDs and cassettes by these and other groups are sold in
large stores for about 3000 CFP.

In order to listen to some of the above contemporary
music, you are invited to Jane Resture's Pacific Islands Radio at:

Pottery dates back to New Caledonia's earliest known
civilisation. The Lapita culture of around 1500 BC Lapita pottery was traded
deep into the south-west Pacific and remnants 3000 years old have been found in
Papua New Guinea. Later, it was essentially a woman's craft, and finished pots
were traded with other clans for more desirable goods. Locally made traditional
pottery is no longer produced. Made from clay deposits found around the islands,
the pottery was simple. The clay was kneaded and rolled into strips, which were
joined by beating the clay with a wooden spatula. The pots were then wrapped in
grass and baked in an open fire. While still hot, they were covered with
kauri-gum varnish for waterproofing. For more information, see the boxed text
below:

Lapita Pottery

The pottery found at Lapita, as the site near Kone
became known, formed the basis of the Lapita culture theory. compared with other
archaeological findings elsewhere in the Pacific, it allowed researchers to
better understand the original Melanesian migration patterns. Having its origin
in the late Neolithic cultures of the Philippines and east Indonesia, Lapita
culture penetrated the west Pacific between 2000 BC and 100 BC. The people were
highly mobile Austronesian-speaking voyagers with advanced maritime technology.
They lived on fish, pigs and domestic fowl.

In New Caledonia the pottery styles differed in the
north and south, varying from simply decorated objects to those showing a more
elaborate approach using handles and glazes. Geometric patterns and stylised
human faces were sometimes used as decoration, however better known are the
pinhole-incised designs which were carried out using tooth combs.

The Lapita site near Kone was discovered by geologist
Piroutet in 1917. First excavated in 1952 by two American archaeologists, it's
still being worked on, although there's little time for visitors to see in 1995,
two large pots were uncovered on the beach here. These pots, and others, were
shown for the first time in 1999 at an exhibition in Noumea. At the time of
writing, the Musee Neo-Caledonien in Noumea was attempting to secure a permanent
exhibition of Lapita pottery. If this is successful, it will be the only place
in New Caledonia where this ancient art can be viewed. Around AD 300, Lapita
pottery disappeared throughout Melanesia as a result of historical evolution

For information about Lapita Pottery,
please visit Jane Resture's Polynesian Voyaging
Web site at the following URL:

Painting is a relatively recent
form of artistic expression for Kanaks. Around Grande Terre, but-stop shelters
are the favoured 'canvas' of local artists. At a commercial level, painting has
been adopted mainly by women. some well-known names to look out for include
Yvette Bouquet from Koumac, who concentrates on Pacific and and Oceania themes,
and Paula Boi, whose scenes are more abstract. Both women are the subject of
small books published (in French by the ADCK. Also known are Denise Tuvouane,
and Maryline Thydjepache, a young Noumean-born artist who uses mixed media.

Literature

Coming from an oral tradition,
Kanaks were masters of speech, while the written word was nonexistent. Writing,
therefore, has never been a recognised art form. Since the establishment of the
ADCK, several books on Kanak culture, written by Kanaks, have been published.
Female writer Dewe Gorodey specialises in poetic interpretation of history (such
as repression during the colonial system and destruction of Kanak identity),
while Pierre Gope is a recognised scriptwriter.

Sculpture

Wood

In older times, spirits were
carved in wood, and today the art of sculpture embodies the spirit of Kanak
culture. The most important wooden sculpture is the fleche faitiere, which
resembles a small totem pole with symbolic shapes (see boxed text below).

Traditional woodcarving

Other wooden carvings resembled
hawks, ancient gods, serpents and turtles. They were often carved from free
trunks and placed as a palisade or fence around important objects such as the grande case (chef's hut). An interesting example of these carvings - which
looks vaguely like a mini Stonehenge - surrounds a religious memorial near the
village of Van on Ile des Pins. War clubs were carved from the strongest trees
and were fashioned with a phallic head, known in French as casse-tete
(head-breaker), or as an equally lethal bird's beak club or bec d'oiseau. In
conflicts, spears made from niaouli trees were used, these were often lit and
thrown into the enemy's hut to set it alight.

These days, the art of wood
sculpture is alive and well in New Caledonia. Sculptures can be bought in Noumea
(see Shopping in Noumea), and from roadside stalls along the
north-east coast. Prices are considerably cheaper at these stalls than in Noumea.

Fleche faitiere atop the grand
case, near la Foa

The Fleche Faitiere

The fleche faitiere home
of the ancestral spirits, is the spear-like carving that adorns the top of the
grande case. The fleche faitiere has three main parts. In the centre is a
flat, crowned face that represents the ancestor. Above this is a long, rounded
pole run through by conch shells; this symbolises the ancestor's voice. The base
is planted into the central pole of the case, which connects it with the clan
through the chief. At either end of the central face are pieces of wood that fan
out to sharp points - these tips are barriers that prevent bad spirits from
going up or down into the ancestor.

Stone

The most important stone
artefact in New Caledonia is the ceremonial axe, a symbol of the clan's strength
and power,. It was generally used to decapitate enemies during a battle or to honour ancestors during pilou celebrations. The stone of this axe, usually green
jade or serpentine, is polished smooth until it resembles a disk. Two holes like
eyes are drilled into the central area of the stone, and a handle made of
flying-fox fur is woven through these holes and fastened. The bottom of the
handle is adorned with stones and shells, with each pendant serving as a
symbolic reference to a particular clan.

Soapstone carvings are commonly
made, and are sold from curio shops in Noumea, as well as from roadside stalls
along the north-east coast. Prices for a small piece depicting an ancestor's
face range from about 700 CF in la brousse, to 2000 CFP from a shop in the
capital.

Bamboo Engraving

Between 1850 and 1920,
anthropologists collected intricately engraved bamboo canes from Kanak
communities. As most of these canes date from around the arrival of Europeans,
it's unclear whether cane engraving was a form of traditional art dating back
many centuries or simply a fad of the time. The canes averaged a metre in length
and were used by Kanaks in dance ceremonies or when entering a village. They
contained magic herbs that warded off evil spirits and were covered with
designs. The designs were mostly geometrical, although real images - ranging
from the pilou dance to agricultural motifs and village scenes such as fishing
or building a case - were also often portrayed. The canes were held over fire to
give the engraved areas a black patina.

The Musee Neo-Caledonian in
Noumea has a good collection of these old canes on display. Contemporary Kanak
artist Micheline Neporon is well-known in this field. She has held exhibitions
in New Caledonia and has participated in international arts festivals.

Kanak Money

Kanak ancient bead money was not
a currency in the common sense of the word, for it was never used for buying or
exchanging. Instead it was given as a customary exchange of respect at a birth,
marriage, funeral or other ceremonial event, and as a seal to support and
maintain relationships and alliances that had somehow been previously damaged.
The money needed long and careful preparation. It was made in the form of the
ancestors, with a carved or woven 'head' from which hung a string of pendants,
either of bone, shell or herbs, resembling the 'spinal cord'. It was always
presented wrapped in tapa (bark cloth) pouch. Several examples of old Kanak
money (and contemporary versions using plastic beads and wood) can be seen at
the Musee Neo Caledonien in Noumea.

Tapa

Tapa, or bark cloth, is made in
many Pacific countries and is produced by pounding bark. Compared with other
cultures, Kanaks were not traditionally big tapa producers. They made small
pieces, often from banyan trees, mainly to wrap up bead money.

Boats

Canoes made from hollowed-out
trunks and huge double-hulled outriggers with triangular sails, known as
pirogues, were the traditional transport for tribes living on the islands. In
these, the tribes - especially those from Lifou and Ile des Pins - explored and
conquered or simply brought in the daily catch. The art of building these ships
has declined, although there are still people on Ile des Pins and around Yate,
on the east coast of Grande Terre, who have the expertise.

Arts Festivals

While there are very few Kanak
arts festivals at grass-roots level, two international events held early in the
1990s have lifted the awareness of Kanak arts. The first was Ko i Neva, an
exhibition of modern-day wood sculptors and painters that travelled around New
Caledonia and from which the first book on contemporary Kanak arts was produced.
Then came De Jade et de Nacre - Patrimoine Artistique Kanak (Jade and Mother of
Pearl - Kanak Artistic Heritage). Held in Paris, it was the largest exhibition
of Kanak arts ever staged in Europe. A tribute to the Kanaks' past, it was also
an expression of hope that the ancient culture would continue to flourish.

The Centre Cultural Tjibaou
stages occasional art exhibitions - consult its annual program or visit its Web
site at www.adck.nc

A huge quadrennial event is the
Festival of Pacific Arts, which gives the indigenous people of all Pacific
nations and people from many other places an increased awareness of the
Pacific's cultural heritage. New Caledonia hosted the 8th edition of this event.

NOUMEA

Postcode 98800 * Population
76,000

Noumea is the nerve center of
New Caledonia. Most of the country's wealth is focused here, and 40% of the
population have made it their home. It is also the top tourist destination,
largely due to the fact that, as the capital, Noumea has long monopolised
services and the attention of the outside world. Sitting on a peninsula in the
south-western region of Grande Terre, Noumea is made up of hills and sloping
valleys that have gradually been integrated into the growing metropolis. Bay
after bay carves the coastline, giving it the charm of a city that opens and to
the sea; it is said to have a thousand views. Noumea is believed to mean
'sunrise' in one Kanak language.

Noumea is home to the majority
of the country's Europeans, as well as nearly the entire Wallisian, Indonesian,
Tahitian and Vietnamese populations. Europeans aside, many of these people
originally came to New Caledonia to work in the mines and at the huge nickel
smelter just north of the city centre; the smelter has made Noumea the South
Pacific's most industrialised city. Those same jobs are largely taken these days
by Kanaks who have come to the capital in search of employment. The result of
all this is a dichotomous city, where low-paid workers live in slum conditions
while well-off residents celebrate the city's chic nature through sister-city
status with Nice (France) and Australia's Gold Coast. For tourists, Noumea is
an ideal starting point for exploring New Caledonia. It has all the facilities
of a modern city, minus the frenetic pace. Its restaurants offer superb gourmet
cuisine, while close to hand are long, white beaches lapped by aqua waters.

HISTORY

The English trader James Paddon
was the first European to settle in the vicini8ty of Noumea. In 1851 he set up
on Ile Nou, an island just west of the present city, where there was a deep,
sheltered harbour providing excellent anchorage. In 1854 a French naval officer,
Tardy de Montravel, wanting to seal France's recent possession of New Caledonia,
chose Noumea as the site for the colony's administrative centre. While
Melanesian clan groupings in this area were relatively sparse, the new capital
occasionally found itself under attack, such offensives were easily thwarted.

In the early 1860s, the French
chose Ile Nou as the site for a convict prison. Paddon was given a large tract
of land at Palta in exchange for the island and, in 1864, the first ship,
Iphigenie, arrived with 248 convicts from France. From then on, convict labour
slowly developed this small military airport. Hillocks were levelled, wetlands
reclaimed and macadam streets were laid. Within a decade, the peninsula of Ducos
to the north had also been established as a convict penitentiary. It was
reserved for 'dangerous' political prisoners, and later became the home of the
territory's leper colony. The town economy and lifestyle were transformed from
1875, when gold and nickel started to be mined and Noumea's industrial
revolution began. However, it was to be many years before the provincial
atmosphere of a colonial town was lost. According to folklore, this was a time
when the colony (early French settlers) came into town on horseback and
swaggered into Le Saint Hubert cafe for a drink just like cowboys from the
American West. but not everyone had such romanticised images of the town. When
Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson visited in 1890, he described Noumea as
an unimpressive place 'built from vermouth cases'.

In WWII the city was the USA's
military headquarters during its Pacific operations. Soon after, it became the
permanent seat of the south Pacific commission (SPC; recently renamed
Secretariat of the Pacific Community), an organisation involving all countries
in the region, set up to promote research throughout the South Pacific. With the
nickel boom of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Noumea's population grew rapidly.
Apartment blocks were erected and the city began to resemble a sprawling
metropolis. Then came Les Evenements (the Events) and an abrupt end to the
tourist trade as violent confrontations erupted in Noumea. Since the signing of
the Accords de Matignon in 1988, peace has returned to Noumea. Street marches
are not uncommon, but nowadays they're staged to demand a better standards for
teachers and health workers rather than to fire up the independence issue. In
recent years the city has been going through a building spree unparalleled since
the nickel-boom era.